


Missing

by Aranassa



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, I Will Go Down With This Ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25527922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aranassa/pseuds/Aranassa
Summary: A brief moment in time where Erend has just told Aloy he missed her and she contemplates what that means to her.
Relationships: Aloy/Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	Missing

**Author's Note:**

> This kind of just popped out of my head the other day and I decided to post it :)

“I missed you,” Erend said quietly.

Aloy had seen ancient wonders of the world. Visions of the past. Mind-bending metal-melting machines. Yet their magnificence crumbled at the sound of three words, three syllables, ten letters that had the mysterious ability to freeze time.

_I missed you._

Had anyone ever said that to her before? Who would have? She had never even been apart from Rost long enough for them to miss each other. Until now.

Now she knew what missing meant. How a person can fill your thoughts when you least expect it. How little things remind you of them. The enormity of craving someone’s presence. It meant being caught off guard by a thought: _They would like this. This would make them smile. I wish they were here._

Aloy couldn’t remember a single instance where someone had said she’d been missed, but it had never bothered her. She’d never noticed.

This felt more significant than she would have expected, like the world had suddenly imploded and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was the look in his eyes, the softness of his voice, the curve of his mouth as they formed the words. There was something catastrophically wonderful about the idea that Erend needed her to know she’d been in his thoughts.

An epiphany struck her in this vast microsecond pause in their conversation. Aloy had observed that there was a societal expectation that no matter if it was honest or not, you were supposed to tell people you loved them and there was an equal expectation that it would be reciprocated. It was what people thought other people wanted to hear.

It occurred to her that some small part of her always thought that to be accepted she needed to be loved. But three words, three small, seemingly insignificant words brought her a new absolute truth: being told she had been missed meant something far greater than being told she was loved ever could. It was a raw honesty, an unnecessary and unexpected thing that could only be truth. Erend didn’t say “I missed you” because he was supposed to, he said it because he meant it.

‘Love’ seemed like waves crashing against the shore, ebbing and flowing, something that could be there one minute and gone the next, something that could slip through your fingers. It was high tide or drought, and how could you know your true feelings if you were drowning or starved?

But… _I missed you._

There was weight to that despite its intangibleness. It was quantifiable and measurable. It meant: _I thought of you often enough that I felt it. Enough that I had to tell you that you were on my mind. Enough that I needed you to know I was thinking of you when we weren’t together._

And wasn’t that how Aloy felt in her travels? Didn’t she think of Erend often while she was away? Wasn’t it him she wanted to tell all her stories to? Him she always looked forward to seeing?

She took a breath. He searched her eyes.

Her response came easy: “I missed you too.”


End file.
